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WWF’s Climate Change LEADS Project (Linking Environmental Analysis to Decision Support), which is being funded by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration and the Batchelor Foundation, is working to enhance resilience in the highly valuable and vulnerable coral ecosystem of the Florida Keys and South Florida by bringing together concerned people, resource managers, and researchers in an informed dialogue to explore ways of adapting coral reef conservation for climate change. This project is engaging reef neighbors and users, marine and social science professionals, natural resource managers, and decision makers at the local, state and federal levels to explore the relationships between local environmental conditions (water quality, local temperature variation, etc.) and coral bleaching. Its goal is to develop conservation strategies that take advantage of beneficial patterns in the local marine environment that correspond with resilient corals. Climate change is already impacting coral reefs in Florida and the future of these beautiful and beneficial resources depend on local conservation efforts that protect resilient and vulnerable but “valuable” coral reefs, while we also work on reducing local, U.S., and global carbon dioxide emissions.
Developing New Tools for Reef Managers
One of the innovative products of the Climate Change LEADS Project will be a geographic information system (GIS) based dynamic and interactive mapping tool that anyone can use to explore patterns in environmental conditions that relate to reef resilience. Successful coral reef conservation requires spatial and temporal information at appropriate scales. The Florida Keys marine environment has been extensively studied by numerous researchers over the years, but the findings of these diverse studies have not been well integrated in the past, and their data has not yet been applied to pressing questions associated with climate change. By integrating complementary datasets in one “geodatabase,” the Climate Change LEADS Project is beginning to address some of these new questions, and to integrate past knowledge into a single, comprehensive database. A web-based version of this dynamic tool which will provide an easy and accessible way for anyone to explore results, and will be available Fall of 2008. A stand-alone version that includes compiled data and GIS databases will be available shortly thereafter for more complex exploration.
Map of the South Florida showing the patterns of water temperature overlaid with the Summer 2005 bleaching data obtained from the Florida Reef Resilience Project (FRRP) through the Disturbance Response Monitoring (DRM) project administered by The Nature Conservancy.
© WWF Florida Program
Actions To Date:
What does resilience mean for coral reefs and climate change?
For a coral reef—or any other ecosystem—resilience has three main components:
Coral assemblages that are more “resilient” are better able to resist, tolerate, or recover from climate change stresses, including coral bleaching caused by high water temperatures, in a way that maintains their key ecosystem functions and processes. “Resilient” corals are most likely to survive for future resource use and enjoyment.